The typical Filipino classroom that online learning has corrupted
Anyone who gives the correct answer at the fastest rate is either considered a well-prepared student or an enemy.
It has been past half of the year since a pandemic spewed its way in the globe. Much boredom has been getting into people’s nerves as well as the state of lonesomeness and isolation. It was an unanticipated pause in the world — hoping that it would just be for a while — where everything has to stop or be paralyzed and be minimized. Millions have unluckily caught the sting of the virus, dragging them to death, while majority of the people await the cure that will restore all aspects of living.
Since almost everyone are stuck in their homes for a suffocating quarantine, it is hard to deny that splendid moments of reflection, pondering on what-ifs, and day-by-day contemplation have managed to impress upon us. Not to mention other things such as getting hooked into the Arts, finding great reads and gaining new perspectives, discovering where we are good at, and other endeavors that we find worth our time, or rather, just fine for killing some of our time. In the other side of the story, we have the view of busy people who have the knowledge to search for cure, give medical attention to the ailing victims of the virus whom I badly think are more and more becoming hopeless, and the governments at large, working to define the do’s and dont’s across the borders.
Institutions of education were puzzled as the implication of the pandemic becomes inevitable among themselves. Education is earned by attending schools and universities, which would follow the fact that people need to leave their homes or residence, ride by any given mode of transportation to arrive at the campus, and flock together in the classrooms, canteens or eateries, libraries, campus parks, and others — a life full of interaction, connection, and socialization. Hence, a total exposure unto vulnerability.
The government has sought many ways to uphold health protocols so to not sacrifice anyone’s health. They have devised the hows of coexisting with the pandemic. Luckily, education can survive with the advancements of technology — the Internet, the devices that connect to it, and electricity, which is a given thing since then. This is what students have to embrace. Earning education through electronic and online means. Some take it as exciting. Others, in dismay of what it may bring as an adverse outcome of it.
Arguments whether online learning must continue or not have surfaced in the country’s information outlets. Nevertheless, it has to proceed lest nothing would be gained out of sitting idly and yearning for the availability of the surest vaccine. As of this writing, in college, it is happening and the ugly face of it has been realized by many people, upon which I am not an exemption.
The laughter, the noise, and the buoyancy. These are the primarily good trademarks that constitute a typical Filipino classroom. Remember those comedians of the class whose sense of humor naturally runs in their veins? Meanwhile in a corner or another, some have gathered for a small talk while giving themselves a nice make-up and hair-do. In another direction, one person is screaming and is close to cry for searching the lost gadget her friends have simply agreed to hide. The practice of taking bad photo shots and making a seemingly unending list of memes out of them is one that makes the class so lively, too.
In a serious note, there would be days where silence is the necessity of all. An examination will be administered within the week and it is but imperative for the active and passive students alike to immerse themselves in an amount of silence to review the notes and reading materials that will carry them to hurdle the impending battle, hoping that not a single brain cell will fail in the actual warfare.
Some do make noise, too, in hope to master their studies well. A mock question-and-answer is most likely to be seen. Anyone who gives the correct answer at the fastest rate is either considered a well-prepared student or an enemy. Some review in groups, others, on their own.
Within that same week, during the perhaps gladly welcomed and fearsomely accepted examination, the noise of the ceiling fans would be heard. The footsteps from the corridors and distant voices of other students might or might not calm an extracting mind. In a minute or two, the clicking of pens is most likely to be considered as code for answers in a specific test item. A sudden turning of page, which forms a beautiful sound of colliding papers, is also part of this scene. From the professor’s table, a mug of coffee could cause you to salivate right from your seat. And the most vital portion of this narrative is the clogged nose of few persons in the room that if that part of their body can only complain, it would be about the person’s miraculous unawareness of their quite disgusting state. Needless to say, the eye contacts, body gestures, and unfading murmurs are also in this list.
At the point of passing the answer sheets, majority will browse their books and see to it if the items that bothered them most were provided with correct answers or not. This will either cause a joy for securing the items or a sad face to the students. Meanwhile, in a circle of students, a discussion happens concerning the ease and difficulties encountered.
These are the simple yet profound cultures inside a typical Filipino classroom. These details, no matter how immature or mature, do make the good sense in the academe of young and robust students. They don’t happen in online classes for they are now corrupted at once. While it is true that resilience and the ability to adapt to changes is innate to Filipinos, online classes can never replace that brick and mortar classroom that students have designed and built for common good and great upbringing. The surest cure is yet to arrive.
Such is life.
